Lithium (song)
For the music video for this song, see: Lithium (music video) "Lithium" is a song on the second studio album, ''The Open Door''. ''It serves as the second single for the album. Background Lithium is a psychiatric drug used as a mood stabilizer, often prescribed to people with bipolar disorder and/or mood swings, along with other mood disorders. Amy on the meaning of the song: ''"It's not literal, it's not literal about the drug for me, I've never taken lithium before. It's sort of a metaphor about numbness and happiness and sort of like, it's me looking at happiness in a negative way because I've always been, you know, kind of afraid to be happy. Like with the band and the art and everything else, it's always like I'm never letting myself break through into the happiness it seems like, because it's not cool or something. And describing happiness is lithium, it's like saying 'that's numbness, I won't be able to be an artist anymore if I'm happy,' which is hilarious because that's just not true, I'm happy. So it's like this fight within the song of like 'do I do this and get out of here and get happy or do i wallow in it like I always do?' and it's cool because at the end of the song I say 'I'm going to let it go,' like I am going to be happy." Music video The music video for "Lithium" was shot in late October of 2006, and released sometime late November and was directed by Paul Fedor. The setting has a winter scenery. It features two Amys: one lurks in a nearby body of water, and is labeled the "sad Amy"; the other is "happy Amy", who wears a white dress and serves as the main focus for the video. The two Amys struggle coexisting with each other. The video also features the rest of the band members including new member Tim McCord, all dressed in black. The archetypes used are symbolic to bipolar disorder. Critical reception Entertainment Weekly noted that "Addicted to love, Lee explores addiction itself" and "tortured Queensrÿche-style pain strummer Lithium. Rob Sheffield added that "Lithium" is her ode to Kurt Cobain. The Independent was positive by listing it as one of standouts and writing "his third album is wreathed in the genre staples of black-clad, mascara'd gloom, a mood best captured on "Lithium", where singer Amy Lee claims, "I want to stay in love with my sorrow/ Oh, but God I want to let it go". Canada.com claims that "Lithium" is the equivalent of Fallen's "My Immortal". Stephen Thomas Erlewine highlighted and called this song "the churning 'Lithium', which most certainly is not a cover of Nirvana's classic (that song never mentioned its title, this repeats it incessantly) -- and in their place is the epic gothic rock (not quite the same thing as goth rock, mind you) that made Lee rock's leading witchy woman of the new millennium". Lyrics Category:Songs Category:The Open Door Category:Singles Category:The Open Door Singles